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Avg. Critic Score: 35 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 Iffy for 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 88
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Possibly the best movie that could be made about Toby Young that isn't rated NC-17. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Ruthe Stein

    A sharp-witted satire of celebrity journalism. Read full review

  • 58
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    Best in show is the divine Gillian Anderson as a powerful celebrity publicist, editing the image of her clients in much the same way this adaptation tames Young's much pricklier book. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today |

    Gets muddled in slapstick and crude humor. Read full review

  • 40
    The Hollywood Reporter | Sheri Linden

    Simon Pegg is likably smart and obnoxious as the fish-out-of-water Brit in high-gloss Manhattan, but he's swimming upstream in a feature that substitutes slapstick for scathing wit. Read full review

  • 40
    Los Angeles Times |

    The putrid showbiz comedy How to Lose Friends & Alienate People appears to hit DEFCON 5 in mistaking its brand of moral laxity for cutesy irreverence. Read full review

  • 38
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    Nothing in How to Lose Friends feels fresh or on target. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post | Michael O'Sullivan

    The movie based on Young's 2002 memoir is a good bit blunter. One early laugh comes at the expense of a pig urinating on a woman's feet at the BAFTA awards, the British equivalent of the Oscars. And it doesn't get much better, or much smarter, than that. Read full review

  • 30
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    Cleverly titled but noxious British comedy. Read full review

  • 0
    The New York Times | Manohla Dargis

    The crushingly unfunny and slopped-together How to Lose Friends & Alienate People has neither the ambition nor the intelligence to do justice to its source material. Read full review

View more reviews for How to Lose Friends & Alienate People on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Snarky comedy about celeb culture lacks bite.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this snarky comedy probably isn't on too many teens' radar, though it does star up-and-comers Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) and Megan Fox (Transformers). It's got plenty of edgy content, from nudity (breasts and rear) and swearing (including "s--t" and "f--k") to drinking (sometimes to excess) and drug references (there's a comic bit about cocaine).
  • Families can talk about the celebrity culture at the center of the movie. Is the film ultimately mocking the media's obsession with stars and their lives or supporting it? Do you think the movie offers an accurate depiction of how Hollywood works -- and how celebrity coverage is shaped by publicists? Why does Sidney get lured in by the celeb culture he seems to despise? And what snaps him back to reality?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: The workplace seems very high school, with the "in crowd" getting away with everything. Sidney appears to forget what matters to him and is seduced by fame and its perks, including gift bags and entry beyond velvet ropes. He does seem to find his center by the time the film ends. Some crass jokes. Some discussions about what New York women want in men, making them sound materialistic.
What to watch for
  • violence false1 Violence: Some yelling. A party-crasher is hauled off by cops, and a man lunges at a woman in a public forum. More backbiting than punching.
  • sex false3 Sex: A stripper bares her breasts in a stunt witnessed by kids; a married man cheats on his wife; a writer lusts after a Hollywood starlet, who seems keenly aware of how to show off her assets in skimpy clothing. At some point, the starlet mentions that drugs make her horny, so a man tries to procure some for her. A man takes a woman home and finds out that she's actually a he (viewers see her naked from behind, and her would-be lover comments on "her" genitalia).
  • language false4 Language: A blue streak, from "s--t" and "f--k" to "t-ts," "dick," and "a--hole."
  • consumerism false4 Consumerism: Pretty much a catalog of tons of high-end products (Armani, Omega Speedmaster), Broadway shows (Stomp, The Drowsy Chaperone), movies (Con-Air, La Dolce Vita), and much more. The Haymarket Hotel is featured prominently.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Several of Sidney's drunken moments result in offensive behavior, including mocking people out loud and even knocking them down physically. Cocaine is mentioned and later displayed in a small baggie. Specific drinks are also mentioned fairly often, including White Russians.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

0.5

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...stupidly fictionalized take on real life Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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